REPORT OF THE SECRETARY 47 



accordance with i)rovisions of the Henry Waril K:in«^cr bequest. 

 This bequest provides for tlie purchase from year to year of paint- 

 in«,'s by American artists which shall be assi<]jncd to art institutions 

 throughout the country, the National Gallery being given the privi- 

 lege of selecting from these purchases such examples as may be re- 

 garded as desirable additions to the national collections. There is 

 thus established in perpetuity a procedure which .should prove of 

 prime importance in preserving a representative series of American 

 paintings continuing from year to year and period to period, an 

 historical measure not heretofore undertaken by any nation. 



Purchases under the Ranger bequest began in 1*J20, and in 1930, 

 78 examples had been secured and distributed. The assemblage of 

 these in Washington, December 10, 11)29, was arranged to enable 

 the gallery commission to inspect the works and make tentative 

 selections for the national collection. Final steps on acceptance can 

 not be taken, however, until within the 5-year period beginning 10 

 years after the artist's death in each case. 



It has been suggested that acceptance of paintings by living 

 l)ainters be regarded as tentative acceptances only so that any work 

 chosen may be returned to the recipient institution whence it came 

 when a superior work by the same artist becomes available. 



The addition of a single Ranger bequest work per year to the 

 gallery would certainly not seem excessive, and at this rate in 100 

 years the gallery would be enriched by the ownership of 100 of the 

 most masterly American works of the century. 



Two distinct points of view may be held regarding acceptances 

 of paintings by the galler}'. First, that there should be included 

 only recognized Old World masterpieces with possibly occasional and 

 rare outstanding examples of American work of corresponding art 

 value, and second that the National Gallery should first of all take 

 this opportunity to build up an unbroken series of American works 

 of the first order. 



In the opinion of the director the authorities of the American 

 National Gallery looking to the far future should not be content 

 with accumulations of the art of the past, representing closed 

 chapters of the history of art. As a great people we should have an 

 assured art futui'e, a future worthy of systematic record and repre- 

 sentation. 



A million Old AVorld masterpieces installed in great American 

 buildings will not make an Ameiican National Gallery, and in his 

 view a commission or other oflicial body concerned in the estab- 

 lishment of a national art collection shoulil recognize the distinction 



